Instagram launched its Live feature in 2016, with creators fending for themselves in the Wild West social media landscape. Now, it’s finally enabling them to add moderators.

Live video was already gaining popularity as the hot, new format. But, once the pandemic trapped us all inside and away from each other, the instantaneous nature of livestreaming helped its popularity soar. So much so, that Instagram introduced Live Rooms in March 2021, enabling users to enjoy group broadcasting. Whilst Twitch still remains the biggest livestreaming platform, other sites like YouTube also saw a surge in creators connecting with their audiences in real time.

Sadly, amongst any social media engagement, there are trolls. These are users who make harmful or abusive comments, spam others users, or incite hatred. Not only can this sort of behaviour be psychologically damaging for a creator to see, it can also affect their performance on social media. For those who treat their time on platforms like Twitch or Instagram as professional careers, this is problematic.

To combat this, Twitch lets creators add moderators to their streams. The moderator will keep an eye on comments and the chat feature, dealing with any undesirable behaviour. In some cases, trolls can be removed and banned from the stream.

Without moderators, creators are left to perform this sort of policing themselves. With one eye constantly on community management, it’s a challenge for anyone to perform to the best of their ability.

Instagram Catches Up

At long last, Instagram has finally recognised the need and importance of mods for livestreams. In a year when the platform is dedicating itself to the creator community, having just launched Creator Lab, it makes sense to meet this fairly basic need.

Moderators on Instagram will have the ability to report comments, remove viewers from live videos, as well as turn off comments for specific viewers.

Creators can add a moderator to their stream by tapping the 3 dots in the comments bar. From there, they can choose a moderator from a list of suggestions. Alternatively, they can use the search bar to find a specific user to appoint as mod.

Instagram increased ways to make money for creators by adding badges to Lives last year. Now, with moderators on hand to help, livestreaming could be a much more viable and enjoyable way to make a living.